Holder for needlepoint canvas work

ABSTRACT

A needlepoint canvas backing work holder in the form of an elongated hollow rod having an enlarged turning thimble capping one end and provided with a lengthwise slot for securing a marginal edge portion of the canvas and winding it on the rod for convenient temporary storage and for partially unrolling the same to expose and work on any given selected area thereof.

United States Patent Elsa S. Williams Needlecraft House, West Townsend, Mass. 01474 Mar. 17, 1969 June 15, 1971 Inventor Appl. No, Filed Patented HOLDER FOR NEEDLEPOINT CANVAS WORK 4 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 242/68, 242/67.3F, 242/74 Int. Cl B65h 75/02, B65h 75/28 Field ofSearch ..242/67.3FS,

67.] DB. 74, 68, 59, 60, 96, 55, 1;38/102, 102.1, 102.2,102.3,102,4,102.5,102.6,1 02.7,l02.8, 102.9, 102.91

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 10/1899 Truyter 242/74 7/1909 Marion 242/74 UX 4/1919 0kihara.... 242/67.3 (FS) 7/1919 Carter 242/67.3 7/1935 Weis 242/74 FOREIGN PATENTS 8/1960 Great Britain 242/67.3 FS

Primary Examiner-George F. Mautz Attorney-Chapin, Neal and Dempsey ABSTRACT: A needlepoint canvas backing work holder in the form of an elongated hollow rod having an enlarged turning thimble capping one end and provided with a lengthwise slot for securing a marginal edge portion of the canvas and winding it on the rod for convenient temporary storage and for partially unrolling the same to expose and work on any given selected area thereof.

PATENTED JUN 1 51971 H 'Wmre. 1522 511/1111 11175 BY dew mar/9 ama! HOLDER FOR NEEDLEPOINT CANVAS WORK BACKGROUND This invention relates to a spindle or rod-type holder for needlepoint workpieces and similar pieces of backing material commonly used in hand embroidery work.

As is well known in the art, needlepoint and similar hand embroidery work is performed by sewing yarn of various colors to form a design of a pictorial or decorative nature on a woven backing usually of stiff material having an even mesh of coarse threads. The workpiece or backing of such material is commonly termed a canvas and may be characterized by a plain or more complex weave depending on the simple or elaborate character of the pattern or design to be executed. Mono and duo thread weave backing materials, for example, are widely known for this type of needlepoint and canvas work. Such canvas pieces are usually supplied in standard widths of 12, 18 or 24 inches and cut to size as may be desired for the particular end use. It is also a common practice to supply needlepoint kits" with a canvas of a given size together with various lengths of yarn of different colors as may be required to complete the stitches for the various portions and/or background for a particular design.

Ordinarily a person sewing on needlepoint will pick up the work from time to time as the opportunity arises and intermittently work on the stitching for the canvas. Consequently, the canvas backing is handled and put aside many times in partially completed condition before the finished piece of needlework is done. Based on personal habits or the preferences of a particular individual the canvas and other materials may be loosely kept or maintained more conveniently in a special bag, basket or otherwise temporarily placed aside. Often the canvas may be casually folded, rolled or otherwise laid away until picked up again for continuing the work. In some cases where an individual desires to do particularly careful work various types of frames may be used and the canvas is thus evenly spread out to be held in more or less taut condition for stitching more evenly and surely to obtain a superior piece of finished work.

As will be realized repeated manual handling of a loose piece of canvas in working on the needlepoint from start to finish, unless expertly and skillfully done, will often result in softening the canvas mesh, and particularly in inexperienced hands can cause the weave to stretch, crease, or wear and thus create distorted areas. In such instances, as the work progresses, the unfinished portions of a canvas become more difficult and inconvenient to handle for even stitching and thus detract from the finished appearance. Where frames are used, the canvas may be cumbersome to carry around from place to place and often because of their size such frames cannot be compactly stored away.

Insofar as is known no simple and convenient holder for needlepoint canvas workpieces has been proposed for overcoming the objections outlined above in connection with sewing and handling the canvas manually while avoiding the relative inconvenience in the use of a frame.

Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a simple, inexpensive, and extremely convenient holder which will maintain the canvas in a condition to be readily and easily handled for sewing or placing aside in a compact condition for temporary storage, thus minimizing the chances of stretching or otherwise distorting the weave. Another object is to provide a holder to assist the user in handling the various areas of a canvas more conveniently and so shorten the total time for final completion of the work. A further object is to provide a holder which in practice will enable the user for the greater part to contact the back side only of a canvas when working on it. Thus the decorative face of the needlepoint will tend to remain in cleaner condition.

These and other advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of an embodiment thereof as shown in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which,

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a rod holder embodying the invention with a needlepoint canvas mounted and wound around it in a fully rolled compact storage condition;

FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1 showing the canvas partially unrolled and illustrating the use of the holder for conveniently handling the canvas in partially exposing an area for stitching;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary view of a representative type of canvas fabric weave;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the holder with parts broken away and showing a preferred method of mounting a canvas piece thereon; and

FIG. 5 is a cross section as at the open end of the rod of FIG. 4 showing the hemmed margin of the canvas secured in the rod interior.

In FIG. 1 a needlepoint canvas piece c is shown in the form of a roll 2 wound on the holder 4 of this invention. As is more clearly shown by FIG. 4, the body of the holder 4 comprises a rigid hollow tube 6. Tube 6 may be of any suitable rigid material and is preferably formed from an extruded section of suitable stiff plastic composition as for example, an appropriate styrene formulation. The wall of the tube is provided with a through slot as at 8 extending longitudinally from end to end. The tube is capped at one end by an enlarged thimble forming a turning knob 10, the socket of which is fitted over the end of the tube and secured thereto as by a suitable adhesive indicated at 12.

When rolled in a compact package form on the holder as in FIG. 1 the free end edge portion 14 of the canvas piece may be pinned in place as by the headed pins 16 at each corner, or otherwise suitably clipped in place. In such rolled form the canvas is thus compactly arranged for placing aside or carrying around and affords protection against inadvertent damage. Preferably the canvas is wound on the tube 6 with the outer or upper surface of the weave facing inwardly of the roll 2. In this way the underside or back of the weave and any needlepoint work which has been done will be contacted by the users hands in the act of rolling and unrolling the canvas on the holder. Also as will be later described the user may conveniently work on the stitching of an unrolled canvas section by manually grasping the canvas still rolled on the holder. This will also assist in avoiding manual contact with the upper surface of the canvas and serve to maintain the needlepoint cleaner.

The canvas piece c may be fitted for winding on the tube 6 by inserting one of its marginal edge portions through the slot 8. Most conveniently, as indicated by FIG. 4, a corner of the edge to be inserted may be started into the tube at its open end and the canvas progressively moved into place by relative sliding movement of the rod over the edge. The marginal edge portion may thus be caught in the hollow interior of the tube. As shown in FIG. 5, the canvas may, if desired, be provided with a hemmed edge 20 for the purpose of sliding into the tube and being securely held against displacement after which the canvas may be evenly rolled on the rod, the knob 10 being used as a turning thimble to assist the rolling action as will be readily apparent. As will be realized the hemmed edge 20 is not essential, the canvas material being generally stiff enough to be sharply turned over the edge of the slot 8 and readily rolled on the tube.

As will be understood by those familiar with the art the material for needlepoint or other canvas work has a somewhat stiffly flexible character and may be supplied in various sizes and types of weave. A representative example of one such commonly used weave, known as a duo" thread weave, is shown in large scale by FIG. 3. It will be realized that plain or mono weave may be used as well as other known types.

In FIG. 2 the canvas piece 0 is shown having a short section thereof unwound from the roll 2 of the holder and several stitches formed therein by the yarn indicated at 22. It will, of course, be apparent that the canvas may be unrolled to expose any area or section thereof as desired. With reference to FIG. 2 it will be seen that for sewing the stitches as indicated the user may conveniently grasp the end of the roll 2 near the knob with the left hand and while holding the area to be sewn fairly close to the roll 2 a good degree of steadiness can be maintained to assist in working the needle efficiently and executing the desired stitches. Again it will be apparent that a minimum of handling of the upper surface of needlework or weave is necessary and that the finished surface will therefore be kept in cleaner condition. And since the canvas may be conveniently rolled up immediately on finishing any portion of the needlepoint until such time as the work may be continued the condition of the canvas and partially completed work on it will be efficiently and effectively preserved.

What I claim is:

l. A canvas workpiece holder and hand tool device for needlepoint embroidery work and the like comprising an elongated hollow tubular rod having a longitudinally disposed slot through the wall thereof from end to end, and an enlarged finger-engageable knob having a cylindrical attaching portion fixed to the rod in surrounding relation on one end thereof,

the inner edge of said attaching portion forming an end abutment for said slot, said knob being manually engageable to turn the rod, and, at the other end of the rod the slot being open-for slidably inserting a marginal edge portion of a canvas workpiece endwise into the hollow interior of the rod and rolling said canvas piece on said rod.

2. The device of claim 1 in combination with a woven canvas embroidery workpiece wound in the form of a roll on the rod with the inner marginal edge portion thereof inserted through said longitudinal slot and secured thereby for partially or fully unrolling the woven piece and working on a selected area thereof.

3. The combination of claim 2 in which the outer surface of the rolled workpiece is facing inwardly around said rod.

4. The combination of claim 3 in which said inserted inner marginal portion of the workpiece is formed with a hemmed edge securing said edge against withdrawal through the slot. 

1. A canvas workpiece holder and hand tool device for needlepoint embroidery work and the like comprising an elongated hollow tubular rod having a longitudinally disposed slot through the wall thereof from end to end, and an enlarged fingerengageable knob having a cylindrical attaching portion fixed to the rod in surrounding relation on one end thereof, the inner edge of said attaching portion forming an end abutment for said slot, said knob being manually engageable to turn the rod, and, at the other end of the rod the slot being open for slidably inserting a marginal edge portion of a canvas workpiece endwise into the hollow interior of the rod and rolling said canvas piece on said rod.
 2. The device of claim 1 in combination with a woven canvas embroidery workpiece wound in the form of a roll on the rod with the inner marginal edge portion thereof inserted through said longitudinal slot and secured thereby for partially or fully unrolling the woven piece and working on a selected area thereof.
 3. The combination of claim 2 in which the outer surface of the rolled workpiece is facing inwardly around said rod.
 4. The combination of claim 3 in which said inserted inner marginal portion of the workpiece is formed with a hemmed edge securing said edge against withdrawal through the slot. 